Last month, the second cohort of Launchpad
Accelerator, Google’s high-touch global program for late-stage startups,
came and conquered their app challenges with the help of mentors at Google HQ.

What did they learn that they’d like to share with developers across the world?
Check out the video below for solutions from 3 different startups, and an
in-depth review of MagicPin’s mobile web challenge and solution.

Startup:

MagicPin
from India is a social network app that curates a local user base around locations,
allowing merchants to connect with these specific audiences.

Mobile web challenge:

In India, downloading an app requires a high commitment. On average a user would
keep 5 or 6 apps on their phone. According to Anshoo Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO,
MagicPin, “If you want to be the next app that they download, there is a high
barrier.”

Jordan Adler, Google Developer Advocate: “Devices in markets like India have
limited space--on average 128 MB of memory--and when you add in system features
only 40 bytes of user space is left. And if a typical APK is a few megabytes,
you can only have a few apps before you have to stop downloading.”

Solution:

Jordan Adler: “One of the great things about Progressive Web Apps is you don’t
have to request the commitment (to download an app) upfront. You can start to
build a relationship with the user through the web interface, and over time the
web app can become more like a native app, it can be housed on a device, cache
content and work offline.”

Anshoo Sharma: “In the last 1.5 weeks we have been here we have already launched
a micro version of our platform on Progressive Web Apps. And the experience is
great! Without using the (mobile) app people can get as good an experience.”

About Launchpad Accelerator

Launchpad
Accelerator is a six-month accelerator that enables late-stage app startups
from emerging markets to successfully scale. Here's a two-minute video about the
Accelerator.

Bluetooth beacons mark important places and objects in a way that your phone understands. Last year, we introduced the Google beacon platform including Eddystone, Nearby Messages and the Proximity Beacon API that helps developers build beacon-powered proximity and location features in their apps.
Since then, we’ve learned that when deployment of physical infrastructure is involved, it’s important to get the best possible value from your investment. That’s why the Google beacon platform works differently from the traditional approach.
We don’t think of beacons as only pointing to a single feature in an app, or a single web resource. Instead, the Google beacon platform enables extensible location infrastructure that you can manage through your Google Developer project and reuse many times. Each beacon can take part in several different interactions: through your app, through other developers’ apps, through Google services, and the web. All of this functionality works transparently across Eddystone-UID and Eddystone-EID -- because using our APIs means you never have to think about monitoring for the individual bytes that a beacon is broadcasting.
For example, we’re excited that the City of Amsterdam has adopted Eddystone and the newly released publicly visible namespace feature for the foundation of their open beacon network. Or, through Nearby Notifications, Eddystone and the Google beacon platform enable explorers of the BFG Dream Jar Trail to discover cloud-updateable content in Dream Jars across London.
To make getting started as easy as possible we’ve provided a set of tools to help developers, including links to beacon manufacturers that can help you with Eddystone, Beacon Tools (for Android and iOS), the Beacon Dashboard, a codelab and of course our documentation. And, if you were not able to attend Google I/O in person this year, you can watch my session, Location and Proximity Superpowers: Eddystone + Google Beacon Platform:

We can’t wait to see what you build!

About Peter: I am a Product Manager for the Google beacon platform, including the open beacon format Eddystone, and Google's cloud services that integrate beacon technology with first and third party apps. When I’m not working at Google I enjoy taking my dog, Oscar, for walks on Hampstead Heath.

‘TOP-UP WARNING.’ ‘NO CONNECTION.’ ‘INSUFFICIENT BANDWIDTH TO PLAY THIS
RESOURCE.’

These are common warnings for many smartphone users around the world.

To build products that work for billions of users, developers must address key
challenges: limited or intermittent connectivity, device compatibility, varying
screen sizes, high data costs, short-lived batteries. We first presented developers.google.com/billions
and related Android and Web resources at Google I/O last month, and today you
can watch the video presentations about Android or the Web.

These best practices can help developers reach billions by delivering
exceptional performance across a range of connections, data plans, and devices.
g.co/dev/billions will
help you:

Keep context in mind - how and where do your users consume your content?
Selecting text and media that works well across different viewport sizes,
keeping text short (for scrolling on the go), providing a simple UI that doesn’t
distract from content, and removing redundant content can all increase
perception of your app’s quality while giving real performance gains
like reduced data transfer. Once these practices are in place, localization
options can grow audience reach and increase engagement.

Optimize for mobile hardware

Ensure your app or Web content is served and runs well for your widest possible
addressable market, covering all actively used OS versions, while still
following best practices, by testing on virtual or actual devices in target
markets. Native Android apps should set minimum and target SDKs. Also, remember
low cost phones have smaller amounts of RAM; apps should therefore adjust usage
accordingly and minimize background running. For in-depth information on
minimizing APK size, check out this series
of Medium posts. On the Web, optimize JavaScript CPU usage, avoid raster
image rendering, and minimize resource requests. Find out more here.

Reduce battery consumption

Low cost phones usually have shorter battery life. Users are sensitive to
battery consumption levels and excessive consumption can lead to a high
uninstall rate or avoidance of your site. Benchmark your battery usage against
sessions on other pages or apps, or using tools such as Battery Historian, and
avoid long-running processes which drain batteries.

Conserve data usage

Whatever you’re building, conserve data usage in three simple steps: understand
loading requirements, reduce the amount of data required for interaction, and
streamline navigation so users get what they want quickly. Conserving data on
behalf of your users (and with native apps, offering configurable network usage)
helps retain data-sensitive users -- especially those on prepaid plans or
contracts with limited data -- as even “unlimited” plans can become expensive
when roaming or if unexpected fees are applied.

Have another insight, or a success launching in low-connectivity conditions or
on low-cost devices? Let us know on our G+
post.